deadvsdeviWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dead is a adjective, devi is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dead” is an adjective and “devi” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,859
“dead” frequency rank
#47,301
“devi” frequency rank
54160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dead devi
Definition morto dever, ter obrigação de, ter que

Letter map: dead vs devi

Shared letters muted; letters that set dead and devi apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
dead
4 ch
devi

Grammar separator: dead vs devi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dead is anadjective and deviaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dead is recorded at frequency rank #6,859, classified as anadj. devi is at rank #47,301, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈde.vi/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 54160, this pair ranks #11,496 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dead vs devi

Shared letters: de. Private to "dead": a. Private to "devi": iv.

"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "devi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deaddaed · ddead · deadd · deda · edad
  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dead" and "devi" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dead" is an adjective and "devi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "dead" or "devi" show up more?
"dead" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,859 in our Portuguese list, against #47,301 for "devi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "dead" vs "devi" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,496 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dead" and "devi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs device". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #11,496 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list